On February 9, 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a bill into law establishing a meteorological division with the United States Army’s Signal Service (specifically, the Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce). Though not a direct result of the American Civil War, this new bureau joined myriad other post-war initiatives that sought to invigorate the professional army of the United States as it adjusted to the postbellum world. The first three army officers to oversee the new initiative were Albert J. Myer, William B. Hazen, and Adolphus Greely– all Civil War veterans with an interest in technology, exploration, and science.
The work of the meteorological arm of the new-look United States Army sparked public interest. For an institution that was often ignored by the public — as evidenced by one Eastern socialite who supposedly exclaimed upon meeting a soldier in 1880s New York “I thought the army was all disbanded after the war!” — the army’s work in learning how to predict the weather received positive notices.
To modern readers, who daily deal with the imperfect science of weather forecasting, the hope expressed by the postbellum press that army weather measurements would make predicting the weather an exact science can seem laughable. But they were also genuine, reflecting a widespread feeling that with the nation reunited and progress being made on a number of national projects, the transcontinental railroad chief among them, the reborn Union stood to lead the way in pioneering a new field. Understanding the science of weather would increase commerce, travel, and industry, Americans believed. And as the Washington Chronicle put it, most expected the army’s work in the new field to be “a blessing, in more ways than one.”
Other periodicals called the new weather prediction system “a guaranty of Democratic progress.” The National Grange, an organization representing the interests of the nation’s farmers and agriculturalists enquired Congress as to whether a network could be established for forwarding the army’s weather reports directly to farmers, so that they could better decide when to plant and harvest their crops, or if they might expect drought or deluge. The Chicago Post affirmed that “among all the improvements of modern times probably none will work more important results than these weather signals.”